S. Klinker, C.G.-Y. Lee, C. Wagner, W. Hlawatsch, J. Dalcolmo, H.-P. Röser

Mobility is a key feature for any science mission and for space exploration in general. Missions with mobile systems provide a much wider spectrum of outcomes by analysing a higher number of samples within an increased area of exploration. This additional degree of freedom of a rover in comparison to a lander or even a robotic arm allows the mission to be flexibly adapted to the landing site as it is encountered. However, rover vehicles developed for the exploration of planetary surfaces are extremely complex systems, which have to be specialised for the environmental conditions they are dedicated for. With the variation of the environmental conditions on missions to different target planets, the requirements are varying for the landing system, the rover as well as for the scientific payload. Each mission thus needs a customised rover vehicle which is able to meet the environmental requirements, but also the requirements which are imposed by the mission outline. Possible rover vehicles cover the whole range from Microrovers to the big exploration rovers. Depending on the mission outline, these systems are equipped with different degrees of autonomy. They differ in their capabilities concerning the terrainability or the preparation of samples for scientific analysis. With the wide range of the requirements, also the development and manufacture procedure of these systems varies. With the development of a broad range of rover systems for different mission conditions, the company von Hoerner and Sulger GmbH is well situated in the development and manufacture of rovers. Already since 1989 the company gained the experience to develop the matching rover chassis for a variety of mission scenarios: The Nanokhod rover is a small mobile scientific platform, designed to transport a package of scientific instruments and to carry out in-situ measurements in the vicinity of the landing point. The Microrover has a volume of 160x65x250mm^3, it weighs 3,2 kg including a payload mass of 1 kg. Recently it has been designed to withstand the demanding requirements of a mission to Mercury. Based on this design, an engineering-level hardware model was built which is suitable for environmental testing, preparing the rover design for a variety of possible future missions.

DGLR Symposium "To Moon and Beyond", 2008, Bremen

Conference Paper

englisch

21,6 x 27,9 cm, 10 Seiten

DGLR-Bericht, 2008, 2008-02, To Moon and Beyond; S.1-10; 2008; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V., Bonn

NA

in getr. Zählung;

Bibliothek

2008